What a great way to start a Thanksgiving cooking extravaganza. Tsu and I just made a quick trip down the coast to Hamakua Mushroom Farm to pick up some King oyster mushrooms for Thanksgiving. We’ve been wanting to go for weeks, ever since I found out they sell directly to the public on certain days of the week.

Not only did I get to pick up some extraordinary mushrooms directly from the grower but I got to meet Janice, the owner, whom I’ve been reading up on in recent days. No way I could ever grow mushrooms on a scale like she does but in all earnestness, every fiber in my being is screaming to try. Their story of their humble beginnings is pure proof that anyone with a passion for something they love can turn into an extremely profitable business if your heart is in the right place.

Right smack dab in Hamakua, that is; Laupahoehoe, to be more specific, which happens to be where our family enjoys beach cookouts the most. I never knew that right across the street from our local beach spot is the mushroom farm of my dreams.

So after a super successful sleuthing event last week that took me to the arugula farm of my dreams… where I found out I could purchase weekly the CSA of my dreamiest dreams… I branched out into other magnificent local food finds. I just had a feeling that this might be my luckiest coinkydink yet!

And lucky it was.

We meant to go yesterday so after waking up, having coffee and such, we set out to do it for real today.  Our first try at locating the farm was unsuccessful. No signs, windy, steep sugar cane roads made us a little sketched out to go to far up the mountain in the wrong direction just in case the Tesla couldn’t quite manouver the roads. We head back down to the corner store where we are tempted to just bag the idea for another day.

MinuteStop is, well, a super overdo post for another day because the temptation for their Thunder Thighs and eggrolls are a bit of a local secret and ALWAYS, like always, a temptation that no one in our family can turn down. But like I said, another day… so we stop and make a call to the Mushroom Farm, neither one of us daring to get out and go inside.

After a few minutes on the phone with Janice, giving the kind of directions only a local can really understand, we endeavour to try to find the farm again. Completely undeterred, we head back up the mountain side, confident this time we were going in the right direction and might just make it there and back without any car situations. Love the Tesla but a 4 wheel drive all terrain vehicle she is not…

We make it up the road and then I spy the acres of warehouse space tucked neatly away on a super gorgeous farm that looks like it could grow damn near anything in the world. Like picture perfect.

There is one other family there picking up mushrooms and I see a woman come out with the largest bag of mushrooms I’ve ever seen and hands it to a little boy in a mini van. I’m almost losing it with excitement and I open the door of the car before we’ve come to a complete stop. Tsu just says, ” You go ahead, I’ll hang out here in case there’s nothing to see.” And nothing to see was really accurate because I just popped into the front office where I was warmly greeted by two ladies handling the sales.

I tell them we made it and asked them what could I take home with me.
5 lb bag of pits and pieces for $30, Janice suggests. All they have.

Completely unphased by the “bits and pieces” bit, I quickly accept. Cash, she politely mentions… The look on my face must have been so tragic. She asks me where I live and I tell her not far, down the road and she smiles broadly and tells me without any hesitation that she will just put it on my tab and I can pay her for them next time I come by.

I was floored and almost hoot and holler, do a little jig, Hell to the yes, all day. I tell her she won’t get rid of me now. And she said, great, that’s usually how it goes. The other woman hands me a handwritten receipt as a reminder and giggles at my excitement as she heads out to go get my treasure.

And TREASURE is no small word for what she brought me as I head back to the car. A 5 lb bag of the most beautiful baby King mushrooms I have ever seen. Ok, the only 5 lb bag of mushrooms I have ever seen, period. Let alone one that was seriously bursting with beautiful, absolutely perfect mushrooms.

Think baby Bellas, the smaller mini portabellas, and you will get an idea. They were still large, beautiful King oysters but not the hand-sized ones we can pick up commercially. Those premiums get sold to Costco and of course, to the public, if I had been early enough to snag them. But hey, happy accident for me because I was ecstatic about the “bits and pieces” nonsense I had just been gifted. Because that is what it felt like. A freaking gift, y’all.

So as usual, super long story about my latest local food find. Find is just not the right word. GIFT is more like it. And you know, if you know nothing else, this girl’s tab is gonna get paid every single time I need to score a monster bag of gourmet mushrooms from the other farm I am obsessing over this month. This one, also, just down the street along the Hamakua Coast, where I am so blessed to call home, too.

Hawaii Island, I love you, dude.

Hamakua Mushroom Farm
36-221 Manowaiopae Homestead Rd
Laupahoehoe, HI 96764
(808) 962-0017
https://hamakuamushrooms.com/

Hours to the Public:
M-W 10am-2pm (first come, first serve or order ahead for pickup)
No tours to the public during the pandemic.
Facemasks are a state mandate in Hawaii during Covid-19.

Hamakua Mushrooms can be found in grocery stores all over the State of Hawaii but are especially prolific along the Hamakua Coast retailers and are often in stock at Costco in Kona, HI.